Treatments for Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma in Elderly Patients

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Patients older than 80 are less likely to receive the combination of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) as treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to an article published online in Cancer.

Data was provided from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database. Characterization was complete according to presentation, treatment, and survival patterns in patients diagnosed with DLBCL between 2002 and 2009.

Of the 4,635 patients included, 1,156 (25%) were older than 80. Instead of receiving R-CHOP, the patients over 80 years were more likely to be observed or receive the combination of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone (P<0.0001 for both).

Through multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, the R-CHOP therapy regimen was determined to be the only regimen associated with improved overall survival (hazard ratio, 0.45; 95% confidence interval: 0.33-0.62) and lymphoma-related survival (hazard ratio, 0.58; 95% confidence interval: 0.38-0.88).

The study suggests that R-CHOP be considered as a regimen for patients older than 80 years and further studies be conducted on the correlation of treatment of DLBCL and the quality of life of these patients.